1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a method for executing an automatic calling function in a cordless telephone system comprising a fixed base station and a "flip-type" remote handset having a flip cover, and more particularly, to a method for automatically forming a calling loop of an established telephone number when a hook switch of the base station is off-hooked, or when a dial key corresponding to a telephone number is input by a user, or when a flip cover of a remote handset is opened thereby activating a flip switch, or when a call key is input by a user.
2. Background Art
In general, conventional cordless telephone systems include a fixed base station connected to the telephone line and a remote portable handset connected to the base station by wireless. In such a telephone system, telephone calls can be made with the remote portable handset at a place away from the base station by connecting the remote portable handset to the telephone line through the base station.
One conventional housing for such a remote portable handset is a "flip-type" housing such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,384,844 for Pivotable Housing For Hand-Held Transceiver issued to Rydbeck and U.S. Pat. No. 5,327,584 for Portable Radio Having Cover Releasing mechanism And Receive Switch Which Are Operable Together issued to Adachi et al., in which a flip cover, or lid, colloquially known as a "flip" is used to provide protection to a keypad from unintentional activation or exposure to the elements while concomitantly providing a convenient extension to the phone. When the flip is closed, a flip switch electrically connected thereto is closed and the cordless telephone system is usually in a standby mode corresponding to an "on-hook" condition. A call key remains, however, accessible to the user so that, when there is an incoming phone call and the flip is closed, the user can answer the phone call by pressing the call key without having to first open the flip. For the "flip-type" handset to perform other operating functions such as dial or redial function and intercom function, the flip has to be opened to establish an "off-hook" condition and the call key has to be activated before a dial key and function key can be activated to perform a corresponding function.
In such conventional cordless telephone system, necessity often arises for individual users who are very young such as an infant or who are very old such as an illiterate and old person and who have difficulties in memorizing telephone numbers or dialing such telephone numbers to call the same subscriber frequently or to make an emergency call to a necessary destination, and repeated dialing operations are troublesome for everyone in the daily use of the cordless telephone system. Consequently, an effective automatic calling scheme for such a cordless telephone system is necessarily required.
Generally, there are a modest number of automatic calling schemes available in the market today. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,493,604 for Portable Telephone Set With Automatic Dialing Feature, Hirayama '604 provides a memory for storing dial number information of a frequently called subscriber so that, when an automatic dial function is selected, the dial number information of the frequently called subscriber is automatically sent out to the telephone network. While this automatic calling scheme has its own merit, it has been my observation that further improvements can be contemplated.